Review of The Demons in My Head

Should have been prepared I guess. After some 5 odd years as a fan of Australian horror, digging everything I saw from the big guns to the barely seen, finally I come across two in a row that I don't get along with. The Demons in My Head is especially unfortunate, since it actually has a pretty interesting story and some potential. Essentially it uses the standard narrative of a good hearted man driven down a bad path by his frustrations and failures, but weds this to the rather inspired lunacy of a gateway to other dimensions residing within a helmet found inside a meteorite, a gateway capable of transporting matter through mind. This could have been an at least semi inspired science fiction parable, but writer/director Neil Johnson sadly uses his science fiction and horror elements as little more than dressing for a sexual comedy, sexual comedy which barely raises a chuckle and fails even harder at being sexy. The characters of this leaden piece are Travis, who lusts after his blonde housemate (who isn't interested) and later transfers his affections to a religious weirdo (also blonde) who similarly isn't interested. And all the while Travis has to fend off the advances of his snarky gay stereotype other housemate Regis, Travis not being gay. And he also has to contend with the possibility of all his possessions getting repossessed. As comic set-ups go it isn't too bad at base, but the writing makes a self obsessed dimwit of every character with several of them shrill to boot and the sub-Neighbours standard acting does nothing to shade or endear any of them, resulting in an embarrassing morass for much of the film. The forays into genre territory are laughably cheap in a bad way, the effects mostly of a standard that recalls TV programming for the under-5's spawned from producers who assume their audience just won't care. Towards the end there are one or two short but nicely bloody gore shots but its too little too late and the startlingly asinine ultimate resolution to the tale discolors pretty much every meagre bright spot of the rest of the film. I'll give the film a little credit for sheer WTF value, but overall its terrible and only masochists should consider watching it. 2/10.